Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1887-07-07
SOME MEN THAT OUGHT TO
BEN THE PENITENTIARY.

l - - 1880 ~ -
who play poker and faro and deceive
an occasional ''greenhorn" are univer-
sally regarded as disreputable men.
They arc common gamblers, and when
their trade becomes intolerably often
sive, they are taken before the Police
Judge and fined few dollars. That IS
we'll, very we'll. It would be q good
deal better, however, if the laws we're
so strict that men Of that stamp would
have none but prisoners for their com.
panions in games.
But if such men merit punishment,
men who at most handle but few dol
lars and defraud but few people, COM
paratively, what shall be said of those
greater gamblers who play for millions
in the stock exchange or board Of trade?
We look contemptuously upon one who
is pleased when he wins FIVE dollars
from an ignorant or drunken fellow cit
lzen, and the newspapers make a noise
when he is reported to have dispoiled
some poor fellow of little loose change.
But there men who take millions at a
time from wideawake, sober, hard-work-
ing people who are no part in the in
famous game and who are absolutely
defenceless and at the mercy of these
giant gamblers. 1t matters not what
kind of cards are used, whether Goa,
lard, petroleum: pork, corn, coffee, or
wheat. The aim, as a contemporary
puts it, has been first to depress the
market for the thing or the security to
manipulated, so that as much of it as
possible could be obtained for the mon
ey at the command of the clique of
manipulators, the object being to quiet
ly buy ''all within sight" and than
to force the price up, compelling pur-
chasers to buy from the clique, and
pay such prices as the clique imposes.
IF we suppose that combination Of
grain gamblers effect the market price
on ten million bushels Of wheat to the
extent of five cents a bushel on the
average, that amounts to 100000 IN
aggregate. Some persons lose that much
money through the gambling Of the
mlllionaries, leaders in society, pillars
in the church, and high up generally.
If the price is forced down, then the
loss falls upon the farmer and those
having wheat to sell; if the price is
forced up the loss falls on the people
who buy wheat or -four to use, and that
means largely the working people, fol
they constitute large portion of the
population. If there ar ten men en-.
gagged in the scheme, every one Of them
gets for his share of the grain $50, 900,
just that much sweat drawn from the
face of the people. If it were legiti
mate trade, there would be no room FOL
complaint; butt is not legitimate trade,
it is simply gambling for immense
stakes furnished innocently by the PEG
pie and held, feloniously by the gam
blers. The laws ought to be so modl
fed and amended that any gambling o.
tbs character would be declared felony
punishable by Imprisonment in the pen
itentiary. Two ex-Aldermen of New
York city are now in prison for accept
ing brides while in Office; another il
now on trial for similar offence, and
dozen or so of Cook county (Chicago)
Illinois, are under indictment charged
with like offences there. Those mel
are no worse morally, socially or in an,
sense than are these men who prey up
on the very blood of the people, but tn
law Is deficient in remedies.
These reflections were occasioned BY
the recent games in coffee and wheat
The coffee deal began some time ago, I
year probably, and that article went W
six to eight cents pound. A few
weeks ago the rise reached 81 cents Al
once, thus compelling purchasers, more
especially small consumers, poor PEG
pie, to pay twice as much for coffee al
it would have cost them in the ordinary
conditions of trade. One of the gamb
lers had at one time as much as 500,
900 bags of coffee. "a bag weighs
100 pounds.) But the end came abou
the 14th inst, when became evident t.
the gamblers themselves that they hat
carried the experiment little too far
and some of the heaviest firms engaged
in the coffee trade in New York city
suspended.
A few weeks ago, wheat began to g
up little in Chicago. It was observed
that no wheat was being sold in thai